January 2010

Hi all,Well, with thanks to the lovely Sarah, with her awesome blog http://www.hawkercentral.com/sjh/, I now have a ‘proper’ blog- and wow, is it pretty Maybe having a proper one will inspire me to write in it even more- or maybe not, you never know

For those who are following the cloth journey, my stash is expanding rapidly and I’ve only used one ‘sposie a day for the last three days (while I’ve been waiting for the others to dry). yay for me! So far, so good, and I very proud of myself.

Unfortunatley, my darling little Bump (that’s her there ^ Bet you think she’s cute, huh?) is going through that fantastic stage of sleep regression- you know the one. They hit for monthys and suddenly they can’t keep their little possum eyes shut for long enough to sleep. The tiniest noise- ds breathing, or perhaps a dust mote falling on the carpet, snaps dd into what we like to her Esme Mangel Sticky Beak mode, and suddenly her head is swinging around like it’s on ball bearings while she tries to see what is going on. Yesterday, I had dd screaming in the hammock, ds screaming at me (because… well.. he could) and the only option I could see was to be the one who yelled the loudest After that little episode, it was well and truly nap time- the kids went to bed, and mum went out the back for a cigarette (or three).

Hi all, Well, I have been known to get all excited over silly little things, and this is one of them. As some of you know, my ds is very, very into trains at the moment, especially Thomas, that perennial favourite (who invades my every waking hour). Ds has even been known to go “Toot, toot” in his sleep after a big day, out riding steam trains (more on that schemozzle in alter entry).

This whole Thomas thing began when a good mate of ours, with the best of intentions, bought ds a Thomas train set for his birthday, with some extra track and a few spare trains to go with it. It was a top present and, needless to say, ds became just a wee bit obsessed with it. And, like any good mum, I willingly indulged this obsession.

No, seriously, like I mentioned in my last post, it’s a toy that I don’t mind buying extra bits for, for various reasons. Thomas is good old fashioned fun; it’s endlessly extendable and made a very good option when people asked the inevitable “What do i buy him for Christmas?” question; it’s well made- all the little trains are diecast metal; it’s great for ds‘s fine motor skills, being a push train set, not an electric one; and it’s just intricate enough to keep him thinking without being difficult enough to make him overly frustrated. It also doesn’t help that i am veeery easily amused and distracted by trinkets and odds and ends that are marketed as ‘collectible’ or ‘limited edition’. Between my EBay problem and ds‘s Thomas obsession, things were not looking good.

And so, finally, we come to the point of the story. While Ebaying the other day (before dh went and spoiled all my fun by changing his password), I happened across a Thomas playset that goes with our train set, with no bids on it, 3 days to go, at $25. I put in a bid for $35, thinking I’d be outbid and that would be the end of it. And, lo and behold, i won it for $31. Score!

Dh, being a depot supervisor for a freight company, asked one of his drivers to stop in and pick it up for him today. The driver obliged, and, when he got back to the depot, commented to dh that his sons had had that very same set, but it had been a few years since they played with it. Would dh like to come have a look, see if we’d like any of it? You betcha.

So dh cruised round there tonight. I was actually expecting him to come back with a few bits and pieces, probably for the wrong set anyway and not compatible with ours. But no. He came back with 2 playsets, enough track for CityRail, and 54 trains- that’s not a typo- 54 trains (I’m including the bus, helicopter, truck, and tramp steamer all in the train count). There is also a huge train table for the track to go on, with a ledge around the side, that’s just at toddler height. Dh paid the guy $150. Now, that might sound like a lot, but add it up with me- the play sets (including the one I bought off EBay) are $100 each retail, and the trains are between $10 and $20 each. Goodness only knows how much the table is worth. So that’s somewhere round $1000 worth of Thomas, for $181. Double score!!

Oh, how I love a bargain. But dh and I now have a mutual agreement- no more toys. At all. Ds has enough and dd certainly doesn’t need any. Hmmm.. we’ll see how this goes. I’ll let you know which one of us breaks first.

Hi all,Oh, I should be in bed. But sporadic blogging is better than none at all, so i figure. Not that i have a lot to write about atm. Just plodding along. Ho hum.

For some reason, I’ve decided it’s time to foray into the world of cloth nappies- moi, possibly the laziest person on earth. I’m having a particularly motivated streak right now, so let’s hope I get into a routine of washing and using them before the cycle swings firmly back to apathy. That’s the key to things with me, i think- once they are part of the routine, I do them. It’s just that most of the time I lack the inclination to do anything new.

So I am now the proud owner of four brand new pocket nappies, with another two (a fitted and an AIO) on the way from EBay, and a few being lent to me by friends to try them out. I used to think all you cloth nappy chicks were totally insane (no offense intended- insane in the nicest possible way) but now I know better. They are just so cool- soft and fluffy, and the big bum-ness is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s a wholly satisfying feeling to know that they are going in the washing machine and not in the bin, and it was even more satisfying today, when I spent the $40 I would normally spend on ‘sposies for dd in a week on some lovely new cloth.

And I also understand the addiction. Who knew cloth nappies could be so seriously spunky? Giraffe print bums, Chinese silk brocade bums, embroidered bums, special occasion bums, ruffled bums… the list just goes on and on. If I’m not careful, this could quite easily end up more expensive than ‘sposies, not less. Between my cloth nappy searches and purchasing die cast Thomas trains for ds‘s train set (which I justify by saying they are collectibles, and I’m only buying the limited edition ones, and besides, one train had the same name as dd!), dh has officially changed his EBay password, and as I don’t have my own credit card, I’m high and dry. I’m already contemplating ways to hack his account. *ahem**cough* Did someone say shopaholic?